Tivoli Stadium – Lost Home of Alemannia Aachen, Germany

German club Allemania Aachen now play in the splendidly modern New Tivoli Stadium, but their home between 1928 and 2009 was the original Tivoli Stadium, which still stands as pictured above in August this year.

Alemannia Aachen enjoyed considerable success in the 1960s, shortly after Tivoli’s capacity was increased, Bundesliga runners-up in 1969. However, bankruptcy almost ended the club’s existence in the 1970s, Aachen saved by several big German teams playing friendlies at Tivoli stadium for no charge to raise funds. Most of their existence has seen them in 2. Bundesliga, though they also spent a season in the top flight in 2006-07, a last year of glory for the crumbling old Tivoli stadium. Capacity crowds of 20,000-odd filled the stadium (only around half covered by a roof), and Aachen even ended up in the UEFA Cup in 2005-06 after finishing as runners-up in the German Cup. Those European nights, however, were not played at Tivoli because the stadium did not meet UEFA’s criteria.

Below, a couple of shots from Tivoli’s days in the Bundesliga in 2006.